"I remember the moment it happened - the single spark that set my body aflame. Cecelia stood behind me on the Pilates reformer and pressed her legs into my back, her hands into my shoulders. The strength of her long, lean limbs drove me into submission. Her perfectly-highlighted blonde hair tickled the back of my neck. "Connect your pubic bone to your sternum. Hold it." Her voice was deep, throaty."
"But I could not breathe. There was no oxygen left in the room. It had been consumed by her touch, her fire. My chest heaved with the weight of this recognition. It felt simultaneously familiar and forbidden, known and mysterious, natural and foreign. I searched for air as every nerve in my body shouted, This! This is who you are. This is who you've always been."
The narrator married Charles after seven years of dating and a high-school connection that included acting together. Charles had a recurring dream about a woman with a baby that he said matched her, which convinced her their future was destined. Twenty-five years into marriage, an encounter with Cecelia on a Pilates reformer provokes an immediate, visceral response: Cecelia presses into her back and gives precise physical instructions while touch ignites a profound recognition. Breath vanishes as desire and identity surge, collapsing previous beliefs about attraction and shattering preconceived notions about love and self.
Read at HuffPost
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